Willmott Dixon has been appointed to develop over 30 new social homes in Doncaster.

In total 33 new affordable homes will be available when construction is completed in January 2023.

The sites form part of the council's new £100million housebuilding programme which was approved, along with a new Housing Strategy, by Mayor Ros Jones and cabinet earlier last year.

The social housing developments will be a mix of bungalows and family homes using award winning designs from the council’s in-house architects. A key focus is sustainability with various features included to make them energy efficient, cost effective for the tenants to run and supporting efforts to tackle the Climate Emergency declared in the borough in September 2019.

Consideration of how the schemes may impact on nature recovery and biodiversity are at the core of the design briefs, with each site being designed to safeguard the environment.

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The project will generate £444,000 in social value through initiatives to enhance social, economic and environmental wellbeing, such as charity work, apprenticeships for young people and bettering energy efficiency standards.

Cllr Glyn Jones, Deputy Mayor & Portfolio holder for Housing & Business, said: "I am delighted to see the next raft of new council homes start to go up. Building quality homes for Doncaster residents was a fundamental element of our Housing Strategy and the Housing Delivery Plan so seeing work get underway on our latest three developments is excellent news.

"We have had a superb record for delivering new council homes in recent years and this commitment is continuing with more than 500 new homes planned over the next five years. These are homes that include the latest energy saving features to address the climate change agenda and are built to meet the needs and wants of residents. We are leading the way on high standards on the council homes building front."

The homes will be built using traditional construction methods but will be at least a third more efficient than even the latest energy efficiency regulations. All houses will have solar photovoltaic (PV) panels that sit within the tiles, meaning that they don’t have to be retrofitted and green energy comes as standard for the tenants. Furthermore, better flooring insulation and electric vehicle charging points will be included on all new homes to help tenants live comfortably and sustainably in the new homes.